fidence and faith in nature's plan, that the world will move on, that "All's well with the world."

I made a large chart for class room use and explained the whole plan in the form of a review. After the explanation and discussion, the class was asked to copy the diagram and write up their own explanations. The results were very gratifying. Many remarked that although, at first, it seemed rather confusing, after they had drawn and studied the details, it became quite clear.

THE PROJECT METHOD IN TEACHING CHEMISTRY.1
BY ELLINOR GARBER,

Shortridge High School, Indianapolis, Ind.

There has been so much discussion of the project method during the last few years that it is hardly necessary for me to start with the formal definition of a project. In science teaching this method has been more extensively used in connection with general science teaching than it has with the separate sciences of physics and chemistry, but there is no reason to allow this method to become the exclusive property of general science. Several years ago, a study was made of the projects chosen by general science pupils in the Horace Mann and Speyer schools in New York, and a list was obtained containing all the projects chosen by more than one pupil in the course of three or four years. Five of the most commonly used text books in general science were then examined to see what material these books contained, by comparing the indices of the five books. If a word appeared in the index of three out of five books and did not appear on the pupils' project list, that word was added. The combined list of pupils' choices and subjects suggested by the text books consisted of about two hundred words, each representing a general science project. An examination of this list showed that two-thirds of the projects indicated belonged to physical science, the remaining one-third to biological science. Our material then is not incompatible with project teaching. In chemistry our plan has been to make lists of projects embodying the material which we have always included in the more formally organized course. It was rather a surprise to me to find how readily this could be done, and how fully the material that we have regarded as essential could be presented in a project list. For example the subject of neutralization is covered by the following projects.

1. How are acids made? How is sulphuric acid made? How is sulphuric acid used in making other acids?

2. How is slaked lime made? How is it used in making ammonium hydroxide? In making sodium hudroxide? How can hydroxides be made starting with a metallic element?

3. How may acids be counteracted? How would you remove an acid spot from clothing? What would you give a person who had swallowed an acid? What would you do for a child who had eaten lye?

4.

How can we determine the per cent of acetic acid in vinegar? Of citric acid in lemon juice?

Read before the Chemistry section of the Central Association at Soldan High School, St. Louis, Nov. 25, 1921.

After the project has been chosen, the pupil makes a complete investigation. The laboratory time is used in performing experiments, or in studying the reference books. Wherever it is possible, the work is completed by a study of the industrial application. In Indianapolis, the Fairmont Glass Works gives our pupils an opportunity to see a glass furnace in operation, to observe the method of molding bottles, and to see the annealing process. The Rauh Fertilizer Co. makes sulphuric acid by the Chamber process, and uses the acid in making phosphate fertilizer. The Indiana Refrigerating Co. has to soften all the water used in the boilers, and our pupils go there to find out what substances are actually used and in what quantities. Laundries have many different methods of water softening, which may be investigated by the students. After the pupil has completed his work, he makes a report to the rest of the class. In doing this he takes complete charge of the recitation, presents his project, performs the necessary experiments, and answers the questions of the class. He also asks them questions to be answered in their notes.

I should say here that our experiments in project teaching have always been in the second semester, after the atomie theory and the use of formulae and equations have been taught in the more formal way. The organization throughout the whole course is from the point of view of the pupil and his environment rather than from the point of view of the systematic presentation of subject matter. It seems to me that it is desirable for the students to have obtained some acquaintance with the laboratory and the subject before they are put entirely on their own responsibility in the project method. We may find that the project organization can be used earlier in the course than we are now using it. Certainly the work on nitrogen and carbon dioxide in the first semester might be handled in this way.

There are two aspects of the project method which make its application to the teaching of chemistry very advantageous. It gives us an effective way of connecting our subject with everyday life, and it gives us a chance to develop initiative and independence on the part of our pupils. We chemistry teachers all realize how important the subject is in everyday life. The woman in the home needs to know something of the chemistry of foods. A recent examination of the children in one of the most prosperous residence districts of the city, showed that 30 per cent

of the children were as much as 7 per cent undernourished. It would seem then that the mothers need to be taught the value of foods in terms of protein, fat and carbohydrate, and that they should know the difference between a calorie and a vitamine.

The citizen in a modern city needs to know chemistry to be intelligent on questions concerning sewage disposal, water purification, and gas manufacture. One of our problems has always been to teach our chemistry so that it was not a mere matter of symbols and formulae, test tubes and bunsen burners, but so that it would be a subject vitally connected with everyday life. I think the project method gives us a way of doing this. The pupil usually chooses a project in which he is interested, because he recognizes in it something which he has already met in his daily life. Pupils' choices show that their interests lie along these lines. Forty-three students were given a list including such subjects as the following:

They were asked to indicate first and second choices. Soap was the first or second choice of twenty, and glass was named first or second by twenty-one pupils. Carbohydrates only received two votes. If I use this list again, I shall call them by their familiar names, and I think that more than two out of forty-three will be interested in sugars and starches.

The other aspect that I wish to emphasize is the project method as a developer of initiative. We hear from college men that the high school pupil does not know how to study. The industrial world says that the college does not train research experts who can attack a problem and master it. The general public says that our educational system does not produce individuals who can respond to a situation, and work out the problems suggested by it independently. It is interesting to note that the Dean of the Engineering School of Purdue University is putting his engineering freshmen to work on a series of problems or projects with very little suggestion as to the method of solution. In striving for efficiency and economy of time in education, we have led the pupil too much, the work has been too thoroughly planned and organized for him. We have not permitted him to form his own plans, and to learn by making his own mistakes.

When you tell a class to do experiment so and so in a fool proof laboratory manual the pupils do not have much opportunity to develop initiative and independence.

In using this method, we want to keep these two essentials in mind, the choice of the pupil so that he feels that it is his problem, his job, and brings to it the interest which is so large a factor in the accomplishment of any task. We want him to solve his problem in his own way, to develop his own methods of attack. Here we are met with some practical difficulties. If the choice is unlimited how may we be sure that important subjects are not left out, and that the individual projects may not be so unrelated that one member may get little or nothing out of another member's report. Time is precious; if we leave a pupil entirely to his own initiative, he may spend several days in the laboratory and really accomplish very little.

It

I have tried two methods of assigning projects. A list of projects can be made which are all related, as a list dealing with sodium and its compounds: This list should not consist of mere titles such as baking soda, but should suggest some of the questions involved in the project, as: How is baking soda made? What are the uses of baking soda? Why is it used for these purposes? The disadvantage of a list of this kind is that the pupil's choice is so limited that he may not be really interested in any project on the list. The advantages are several. limits the material that must be available for the pupils' use. In a large class working on a wide range of projects it is often quite difficult to have apparatus and supplies readily available. The reports can be arranged in logical order, and in that way each individual report becomes of more value to the class. Each pupil may be asked to keep a small specimen bottle of his product, labelled with the chemical name, common names and formula, then a chart may be made by mounting these bottles. In the sodium compounds, salt would be the starting point, nex: would come sodium bicarbonate, between would be written the equations for the preparation of sodium bicarbonate from salt. In the same way the preparation of baking powder, and sodium carbonate using sodium bicarbonate could be shown. This serves to unify the individual projects into one big class project.

The other method tried consists in making a list of ten to fifteen unrelated projects, such as photography, explosives, production and uses of alcohol (industrial, not domestic), Plaster of Paris and cement, etc. The chief advantage of this lies in the